How Do I Find A Healthy Diet In A World Of Diet Mania?

 
Healthy diet and natural health play a part in keeping your back strong so you avoid sciaitica and back pain. However, you could be forgiven for believing we have forgotten what aealthy diet and natural health are and that the world is gripped by diet mania. Let's help you find a way through the diet maze.

Have you tried typing “diet” into your favourite search engine lately? You’ll find a whopping 67,700,000 entries. How about “weight loss”? Over 21,000,000 (yes million) entries.

Working your way through that lot would probably burn as many kilojoules as a workout at the gym, if you could stay motivated and follow your plan for long enough. And isn't that just what it's like trying to stick to a diet?

The Basic Equation for A Healthy Diet

We all understand the basic equation for a healthy diet – put kilojoules into your body by consuming food and drink, burn the kilojoules by moving your body. So you would think it would be easy to manage your weight, wouldn’t you? Fewer kilojoules in, more kilojoules out....

But it’s so easy to move your body very little. Drive wherever you need to go, use the elevator or the escalator to get from one floor to the next, pay someone to clean your house, tend your garden, make your bed and iron your clothes.

And it's so easy to eat and drink whenever you feel like it. The range of take-away and snack foods gets bigger every day.

Have you noticed how hard it is to buy fresh wholesome food when you're out and about vs high fat, sugar laden, low nourishment snack food?

The Best Nutrition Supplement We Know - BodyBalance

BodyBalance® is a liquid sea-vegetation blend that actually contains more phyto nutrients and phyto minerals than any other kind of food.

Phytonutrients are certain organic components of plants that are thought to promote human health. Fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts and teas are rich sources of phytonutrients and you can reduce your risk of cancer and heart disease by increasing consumption of phytonutrient-rich foods.

As important, Body Balance® is a WHOLE FOOD (unlike many synthetic vitamins), so up to 98% of its nutrients are immediately available for absorption by your body. The phyto nutrients in Body Balance are available for immediate assimilation at the cellular level to provide your body with essential minerals and nutrition.

Kilojoules - Food For Thought

Even the kilojoules aren't easy to follow. (Unless, of course you are gripped by diet mania, in which case you'll know the kilojoule content of everything that does or doesn't make it past your lips). Some food groups, e.g. fats and alcohol, are absolutely loaded with them! So a little education is part of a healthy diet too. Look at this example:

The Deadly Donut!

Have you ever fancied a little something to eat and popped a small, iced donut into your mouth? A small, iced donut represents 1430 kilojoules worth of energy!
You definitely could have chosen your kilojoules more wisely, satisfied your hunger for longer and nourished your body.

Contrast the donut with this whole list of nourishing food that also adds up to 1430 kilojoules:

60 grams tuna (220 kilojoules), wholemeal bread roll (600 kilojoules), 1 cup lettuce (20 kilojoules), 1/2 cup cucumber (35 kilojoules), 1/2 cup sliced tomatoes (60 kilojoules), 1/2 cup red peppers (45 kilojoules), 1/2 cup asparagus (45 kilojoules), 20 grams black olives (150 kilojoules) and then .....

1 cup strawberries (115 kilojoules) with 1/2 cup low fat yoghurt (240 kilojoules).

Hmmm! Food for thought indeed. One small iced donut or tuna, a bread roll, 3 cups of salad, followed by strawberries and yoghurt.

How Do You Choose The Right Diet?

One of the main reasons that there is a whole industry making billions of dollars out of diet and weight loss programs is that it's so easy to eat the wrong foods and there's less 'inbuilt' exercise in our daily lives.
So which are the healthy diets and how do you choose the right program to follow?

No matter which weight loss program you choose, do research it first and follow it carefully. Don't set yourself up to be disappointed by choosing a diet that has great short term results but which you can't stick to. And don't risk damaging your long-term health by rushing into a fad diet.

What Are The Basic Things To Look Out For?

Healthy diets have the following :
Number 1: Fresh natural foods win every time. Grains, fruit, vegetables and grilled lean meat or fish are your best bet.

Number 2: Exercise as a component of the diet. The higher you get your resting metabolic rate, the more you can eat. This is a fancy way of saying exercise more.

Your body has a energy burn rate (your metabolic rate) depending upon your lifestyle and genetic makeup. You can raise this by increasing your activity level.

If you exercise regularly, you get several benefits.

1. The benefit of the energy burn from a specific exercise  session.
2. You also raise the resting energy burn level. This means you burn more energy (and fat) even when you're resting. Good news!
3. Your back is going to work better - it needs exercise and movement.

Low Carbohydrate Diets

Low carbohydrate diets or high protein diets are popular and there are many variations on the theme.

They have been proven to be very effective for sufferers of Type 2 diabetes needing to lose body fat, particularly women. But are they healthy diets?

Is it healthy to eat a lot of protein? They are not recommended by organizations promoting heart health because they tend to be high in saturated fats and there is no data (yet) on the long term effects of following a low carbohydrate diet.